


Love of Freedom

by TrashAYfanfiction



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Beaches, Day At The Beach, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Motorcycles, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24995629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashAYfanfiction/pseuds/TrashAYfanfiction
Summary: Ash is the one with a crush. They spend a day on the beach with Shorter's motorcycle.Could be taken as just a gushy friendship fic too.
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Shorter Wong, Ash Lynx/Shorter Wong
Kudos: 25
Collections: Banana Fish Reverse Big Bang





	Love of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daru/gifts).



> My apologies for being late, idk if I’m typically flaky: I just moved and got new job. I love writing these boys and the art by Daru is so cute!!.
> 
> Pic is here: https://rainphones.tumblr.com/post/622395267120005120/my-last-collab-for-the-bananafishrbb-3-love-of

………………………..  
Shorter Wong was weird. Totally unaware of himself, and that’s what was charming. Tall and awkward and broad. A bad haircut that looked like he was trying too hard. Dark eyes glimmering with mischief and life.  
He was two years older and nothing like me.  
He was loud and boisterous and youthful. A good natured buffoon. Hard to see why he was in juvie. Easy to see why he was caught.

Standard ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ story. At first anyways. One after the other. These type of things grow on you. It becomes the new normal.  
I know that. This isn’t where I planned to end up either. But right now, this beach looked like where I’d have been if everything was normal.

Me four years ago would probably thought I’d be dead by now. Me eight years ago wasn’t smart enough to have thoughts of the future. If nothing had happed I’d probably still be on the beach at Cape Cod now.

This isn’t Cape Cod, but this was a beach.  
The sun crisping my skin, the sand invading my shoes. Everything is perfect.  
Me and Shorter, a friend I’d never have met in other circumstances.

The smell of salt assaults the back of my tongue as I breathe. I inhale memories of the past. The little house away from the world. I remember being a happy child. Even with Mom not being home and Jim being difficult. Griff liked the beach. We lived close to it.

Shorter jostled me out of my thoughts. We rode here on the motorcycle he ‘borrowed’ from Lao. Lao would be angry if he knew it was missing. He’d be even angrier if he knew Shorter was with me. Lao had better judgement than Shorter: he didn’t trust me.

Shorter said the keys were lent. I played along.

This was our first summer after meeting in juvie. I hadn’t wanted to be friends.  
I’ll give it to him that he was persistent.

I snuck out of the mansion. Blanca let me go. Shorter said it wasn’t skipping work if his family owned it. This was a similar situation to how we always hung out.

The sun was beautiful. I clung to the back of his bike. His T-shirt whipped around his body. Twisting and billowing, threatening to escape and fly away.  
It was freeing.

The motorcycle roared down the road, earlier than either of us would wake on a normal occasion. The full day ahead of us. The stench of the city fading out to sweet grass before turning to salt water. I was fresh and alive. It was beautiful.  
I hold both my wrists up to the wind, clinging to the bike with my thighs. I lean back, letting my abs flex as they hold my torso stable through the bumps in the road.  
Shorter tells me to not break my head open. I chuckle and laugh, leaning forward, threading my arms through the open sides of his t-shirt, wrapping them around his warm muscular chest.  
I can feel his body stiffen. His heartbeat is steady against my palm. My own heart is thumping in my chest. His breath is shallow. He’s so warm, but in a different way than the sun on my back….. He smells like weed, cheap cologne, and stale fried rice.  
When had that smell became comforting? I had not felt like this in a long time.  
Griff was the closest thing, and that was years ago.  
Blanca….Didn’t count. He was comforting, but harsh. His care was veiled under layers of professionalism. It was guarded.  
Shorter though… wore it right on his sleeve. He tittered and laughed, and smiled and expressed emotions like a human… I wish I could fake that well.  
Shorter was rough enough to be interesting though. Enough to be real. He was smiling, but I saw through it.  
He was perfect.

He’s a fun stupid idiot. Kind of like a puppy, loyal and ditzy.  
……………………………..  
The day faded on.  
The sky was vivid blue, several thin wispy clouds, but not thick enough to block out the sun. No escape from it’s permeating ultraviolet rays. I could feel them crisping my fair skin. My sunscreen forgotten.

Shorter teased me. My pinked skin hid my blush.

My chest fluttered.

Griff would have teased me too. I got chocked up on a comeback.  
Good thing Shorter was too dense to notice.

………………………………………….  
The sun distorted our vision in heat waves.  
Sweat dripped down my back. My clothes stuck to my body and to the vinyl seat.  
Finally, we were out of the city.

We stopped for ice cream. Shorter bough strawberry.  
My nerves protested as the cold sugar assaulted my teeth, but my core temperature loved it. I ate slowly, trying to avoid the discomfort.  
I’ve always had a cat’s tongue. Too hot or too cold was no good.  
If it was anyone other than Shorter, I’d make a show of licking the milky substance off. Let him know how soft my mouth was, how much attention to detail I had…

Shorter liked me. That line about the Angel card confirmed it. …and it was always fun to pick on straight boys.

But was never fun to have a crush on a straight boy. That was a good way to get punched.  
I didn’t want to try that with one of the only people who could stand me for more than a few weeks.

Shorter’s ice cream melting into a sticky mess around his fingers, despite eating twice as fast. He licked his fingers until his hand stuck to the napkin, paper pulling off into clumps.

I tried not to chuckle. He was so clueless.  
……………….  
Shorter hadn’t left me alone since we both got out of juvie. The first two weeks I regretted giving him Dr. Meredith’s number. Shorter called it every day to the point that the good doctor was getting pissed.  
Shorter always talked your ear off about nothing if you didn’t answer. Talked about his life, his sister, his friends that I didn’t know and would never meet. It was funny. The kid had no filter. No self-awareness.  
‘This weird dream I had last night…”  
Surprisingly Shorter was a good listener when he needed to be and that was appreciated: not normally listening to anything, normally he forgot what you said as soon as it was told to him. But when it really mattered, somehow, he remembered the important things: little details about personality.  
He saw things I didn’t sometimes. I didn’t think he was stupid, but he was a buffoon.  
He would be better off if he remembered the important things like where he left the housekey.  
He was not reliable but was potentially trustworthy. I still didn’t know his ability to keep a secret.  
……..  
Eventually I told him of my past, of Cape Cod, dad’s house, Griff. He gathered Dino was not my dad but took him a comically long time to understand.  
Shorter brushed it off by telling him “All white people look the same,”  
I cracked a smile; most did look the same. They all acted the same… It’s all the same when you’re facedown anyways.  
I hated that these thoughts crept in, but Shorter was good at silencing them.

Those thoughts had been gone since this morning though.

……………………….  
Shorter showed up outside Dr. Meredith’s office revving the engine of his borrowed motorcycle. The loose fender rattled obnoxious against the frame.  
Meredith sighed as Shorter laid on the horn. I grimaced. “Yeah, I know, he’s overbearing,”.  
I couldn’t get down the fire escape quick enough. Jumping on the back of the bike, the worn shocked bounced our bodies together.  
I had wanted to go to the beach. I let him know on the balcony of his apartment a few days ago. I didn’t expect to get my wish, but Shorter was happy to oblige, chalking it up to ‘Cruzing for chicks,’  
More like skeezing on chicks. But I let him believe what he wanted.

………………  
The day was beautiful. Sunny. Hot. The beach was busy. Families with children, gorgeous women in skimpy bikinis, at least one built lifeguard I couldn’t help but glance at twice. Muscular and energetic, smiley, earnestly helping. I’d like him to take me home  
Shorter caught me looking. I bit my lip. I don’t think Shorter’s ever seen me express any preference whatsoever.

I wasn’t hiding my face in my hair on purpose. The guy had been so beautifully tan. Dark hair slicked back out of his face. His short red uniform. ..My mind wandered.  
I heard Shorter snort disapproval, probably disgusted this guy was getting more female attention. He did that often when pretty boys were around.  
Shorter was cute when he was jealous.

I picked between my teeth with a stalk of beach grass before spitting it out.

……………………………………..  
The sand invaded my shoes as we walked down the beach. The bike was left behind in an unofficial parking spot.

It was crowded. We sat on the boardwalk peoplewatching. Everyone in their own little world with their own little story. I rarely had time to be curious.

The need for privacy led us farther down the beach, probably on someone’s private property.  
The beach grass waved in the wind. Behind the dunes seemed private.

A stubby white lighthouse was perched on the hill overlooking it, an unnatural spire against the sky.  
Shorter was mesmerized. His mouth gaped. “Who lives there?”  
“Nobody fuckface, that’s a lighthouse,”  
“A what?”  
“A lighthouse. Keeps boats from crashing,” I shook my head, disgusted.  
“Well, can’t they fuckin’ see the shore?”  
“Not at night,” It occurred to me that Shorter had never been on a boat. I could only vaguely remember being on a boat myself but growing up on the coast: it was unavoidable.

We climbed the dune to get a closer look at the lighthouse. It ended up being the kind a tourist could climb. We scrounged in our pockets for the three dollars each and Shorter rocketed up the cement spiral stairs. About halfway up I could hear him panting. The humidity was even worse inside the tight cement tower.

We encountered one couple who was on their way down, but nobody else was at the top.  
Shorter got to the top first, questioning the giant lighthouse beacon before being distracted with outside. He is leaning on the steel pipe railing, gasping and smiling. The wind tickled his spikes, causing them to bob and wave. His sunglasses hid his eyes.  
Overlooking the water was beautiful. The walkway on the perimeter of the tower was tight, but we circled it to get a full view of the land. The wind was stronger, so we shielded our faces with our hands. The coastline was small. Houses and boats looked like toys. A little sailboat skittered across the waves. Somehow from up here the colors seemed more vivid.  
It wasn’t nearly as tall as a skyscraper, we both had been higher up in the air, but the contrast between this and the rest of the landscape; a single unnatural spire... I know I always thought of them as a princess tower. I don’t know where Shorter’s imagination went.

Heat wafted from the stairwell when it was time to go back inside, deterring our decent.  
On the way down, Shorter tried gliding down the inside spiral railing, but couldn’t manage to smoothly.

Back on the ground Shorter hesitated following me and looked up at the tall white building. It was cute.  
…………………

The heat drove us to the water. We found a lagoon that probably nearly disappeared in low tide.  
I swam in it. The saltwater was cold and refreshing. I relished it sticking my clothes to my skin and dripping down my body. I would never dry out in the humidity, but maybe the wind from the bike would help. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.  
Shorter tentatively watched from the shore as I swam further into the alcove. It was only about chest deep.

“What are you waiting for!? Get in here!” I splashed at him.  
Shorter ran into the water then hesitated. He never hesitated. I could see in his face he wanted to, but was apprehensive.

That’s when I learned that Shorter couldn’t swim.

I swam closer; shallower water about hip level, and coaxed him in. He snorted.

“Come on, I’ll keep you safe. Don’t you trust me?” My hands were around Shorter’s shoulders, water lightening my bodyweight against him.  
My short blue swim trunks clung to my thin frame. He was still standing.

Shorter’s body was so warm against mine. Strong thighs.

I wanted to kiss Shorter.

I knew better than to kiss him.

He was sweet and kind, and someone like me would change that if I got too close.

He was smiling. The sunshine reflecting off his dark glasses.

This was perfect for now.

I stepped away and let him chase me around the lagoon until we were exhausted. As usual, I tired first.

We stayed on the beach until the sun was setting. I regretted needing to go back to normal life.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudo's are always appreciated! I hope you are all staying home and staying safe. If you wanna/need to chat you can find me here  
> https://twitter.com/TrashAYfanfic  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/trashayfanfiction


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